Summer Meals for Losing Weight – Back on Track, Week 6

GUESS WHAT? There are NO RECIPES for any of these meals. They are all assembled from simple ingredients with nothing fancy… they’re the ideal Summer Meals for Losing Weight.

Another week in the life of a post op – these are meals for LIFE. When you finish these seven meals, CIRCLE BACK TO WEEK ONE TO BEGIN ANOTHER ROUND of Back on Track. If you are in bariatric maintenance mode, just pair these great suppers with a shake for breakfast and moderate high protein lower carb lunch!

Monday – Grilled Chili Cheese Buffalo Burger – For two, I buy 2 Sirloin or Buffalo Burger Patties at Fresh Market, grill to medium rare doneness to serve on a plate with leftover chili or a can of Chili Beans for moisture, shredded Vermont cheddar, fresh cilantro and black olives. TIP: Use sauces, salsas, vegetables – in this case chili – to make a moister bite of meat. Burger alone is difficult but a bite of burger with chili is nice and moist!

Tuesday –Grilled Surf & Surf – 4 ounces of swordfish and 2 skewered shrimp, seasoned with lemon/salt/pepper, GRILLED and served on top of shredded romaine lettuce & napa cabbage tossed with bottled sesame ginger dressing. TIP: Grill or pan sauté any kind of seafood and serve on a bed of dressed greens. It’s a delicious and fast, soft textured meal.

Wednesday – Crab Cake Salad – I love the crab cakes at Fresh Market and buy when they are on sale! Brown in butter in non stick skillet to serve on top of a bowl of baby spinach, grape tomato halves, sliced egg and toasted pecans. TIP: A fresh yogurt dressing has protein and is a guilt free way to moisten your salad. The dressing? Half of a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch powder blended with a cup of plain Stonyfield yogurt!

Thursday – Rolled Boars Head Baked Ham, Asian Broccoli Slaw, Inspire Protein Crunchers – the slaw is a bag of broccoli slaw mix from the produce section tossed with sesame ginger dressing. TIP: Toss a handful of bagged slaw mix, either broccoli or cabbage mix, with a Bolthouse Farms Yogurt dressing flavor for a delicious cole slaw to moisten your food. The Protein Crunchers are super crunchy and offer a protein offset for the few carbs – delicious crunch with a soft food plate.

Friday – Steak Caesar Salad – One 8 ounce filet mignon from Fresh Market @19.99/LB is under ten dollars for 2 people. Season with salt and pepper, grill to medium rare and rest. Serve slices on top of romaine lettuce tossed with Bolthouse Farms Caesar Parmigiano yogurt dressing. Top with shaved Parmesan. TIP: Tossing your greens with dressing in a big bowl allows for even distribution of the dressing. Each small bite of meat is moistened by a little salad!

Saturday – Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Avocado and Greens – in the seafood department of my regular grocery store, I can buy shrimp on bamboo skewers for $1.50 per stick – either thawed singles or a box of twelve, frozen. (They thaw in 10 minutes in cool water!) Season with salt/pepper/chili powder, cook 2 minutes each side in a hot skillet or on grill. Serve with avocado slices, lemon juice and olive oil tossed baby arugula, chopped tomato. TIP: Use Sauce & Vegetables to make a moist bite of food. The sauce? Bolthouse Farms Salsa Ranch yogurt dressing OR equal parts salsa and Greek yogurt.

Sunday – Grilled Italian Sausage, Peppers, Portobello mushrooms, Onion – once again, a Fresh Market meal of Italian sausage and a ‘Vegetable Kit’ from their produce section that gets arranged on a hot grill and then your plate. TIP: Sausage is a bariatric friendly only if it is LEAN. I only buy sausage from a meat counter that is made ‘in house’ and looks like meat – a sausage that is mostly white will be mostly fat. On this plate the soft vegetables make for a moist bite of meat!

The mistake that we see repeated over and over in our BariatricEating Support Group on Facebook is that post ops think they only need to change their eating in order to LOSE the weight, and then they can eat ‘regular food’ again. OR they believe they don’t need to change at all as reduced portion will take care of it for them.

Noooooo… CRASH… let us burst that bubble for you. Post op life becomes your NEW NORMAL. These meals are not a punishment and will guide you to a better understanding of the changes you need to make last FOREVER.